Features

OK so the above title is not quite Bill Clinton level “It’s the economy stupid” political sloganeering, but it still rings true for small businesses online. Do you ever ask yourself what makes a small business stand out? Why customers remain loyal in the face of price undercutting from the big boys?

Well it really comes down to your value add and the personal experience dealing with a small business brings. We all know that if we complain to the big behemoth in the sky then really the person at the end of the line at the call centre really doesn’t give a rats ass.

Whereas the small business owner takes any kind of complaint or criticism to heart as they know reputation, both the businesses and their’s personally, is on the line and they need to do something about it.

Project the personal touch

It’s the same online. You need to project the personal touch to your customers and not hide behind the faceless identity making yourself seem bigger than you are. It’s about crafting a story that is both honest and genuine so you connect with the customers you want.

So whether that me through blogging, social networking, the photos you take or the videos you share, it’s vitally important that your personality be front and centre as the new prospect navigates the information about your company.

It was actually the following article that got me reflecting on this as this has always been the advise we give to our SME clients. Take a read and let me know in the comments section what you think:

http://yodleinsights.com/show-the-softer-side-of-your-small-biz/

So it looks like the magic 140 character limit on Twitter is about to change. Whilst it’s still unofficial, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the powers that be are looking into giving special dispensation to users to extend some tweets to more than 140 characters.

Will this ultimately change the nature of the beast? After all, if you want full commentary pieces you go to a full blog rather than a micro blogging platform.

That said, a little leeway to periodic “I’ve got more to say on the subject” style tweets could be healthy for debate and I for one would back the move so long as it is limited in user frequency. Watch this space.

Read in full here:
http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/10/twitter-140-character-limit.html

Have you ever used social media to find employees? If you haven’t then you could be missing out. We’ve unearthed some absolute gems for our team simply by joining the correct groups of like minded people with the prerequisite skills we are looking for.

As the following article shows, this is something ever more employers are using to find the right kind of talent. Sometimes its just a case of thinking a little laterally.

For example, we’ve hired a bunch of wonderful editors and writers using certain closed Facebook groups where we know the majority of the community will be great with the written word.

This has been invaluable to growing at scale especially when said workers are native English speakers but based in countries where the average wage is considerably lower than the UK/US.

Time to think laterally and get on this trend:
http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/09/using-social-media-to-find-employees.html